Being ready for hybrid services ultimately means being ready for digital service delivery. You should be already actively assessing the impact and outcome of your services. How can you assess how ready you are to deliver services digitally?
The Digital Maturity Framework can help.
This UK-based nonprofit-focused framework identifies fifteen competencies of organizational digital maturity, organized into 4 categories. The 15 digital competencies are evaluated on a level between 1 and 5 to produce your organization’s digital maturity score.
This Digital Maturity Assessment reveals the level of digital maturity of your organization. Levels of digital maturity range from 1 (low) to 5 (high). The assessment takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. Read the descriptions and choose the answer that most closely represents where your organization is at the moment.
Digital maturity audits work best when a few stakeholders in the organization complete the assessment. Complete the assessment individually and compare notes with your colleagues to see where your perspectives align and where they are different. Use the results to discuss where you are at, and what more you could be doing. Or do it as a group exercise.
You can use the framework by:
Keep the conversation broad and open, starting with these questions:
Once you agree, you can use this baseline to set your target digital maturity for future years. The report you get (see below for an example) will provide you with your overall Digital Maturity score, as well as provide the average score of everyone who has taken the assessment so you can see where you compare with peers.
If you're not sure where to start to assess your organization, this tool is a great first step.
Each competency below is linked to a page with more information.
| Digital maturity competencies | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Level 5 |
| Attitudes and Foundations - These competencies are foundational. As they underpin other competencies, it's hard to achieve digital maturity without them. | |||||
| 01. Culture | Sceptical Staff are wary of digital and try to avoid it. | Respectful Staff are happy that specialists are dealing with digital. | Participative The organization understands the value of digital and wants to learn more. | Inclusive Digital is seen as key to success and incorporated into everything. | Evangelical Digital is the principal way to engage supporters and achieve the mission. |
| 02. Leadership | Minimal There’s no clear digital leadership at any level. | Restricted The digital lead is confined to a mostly tactical role. | Supported The digital lead is encouraged to be strategic, when time allows. | Elevated A senior digital lead exists, and digital leadership is actively invested in. | Intrinsic Digital is an integral part of the overall strategy and digital leadership is present at all levels. |
| 03. Budget | Survival The budget only covers the bare essentials, such as website hosting. | Maintenance The budget supports the current setup but doesn’t allow for improvements. | Experimenting The budget allows for the testing of new ideas in priority areas. | Growth The budget supports increasingly digital ways of thinking and doing. | Sustainable A healthy budget for the ongoing evolution of digital operations increases impact. |
| 04. Innovation | Deprioritized Innovation is not considered important, or is not happening at all. | Ad hoc Innovation occasionally happens as part of existing projects. | Small-scale There is innovative re-imagining of some aspects of products or services. | Coordinated Joined-up innovation is evolving the organisation. | Embedded A structured innovation programme is creating transformational change. |
| People, skills and processes - Digital is as much about people as it's about technology. | |||||
| 05. Capacity | Responsibility One person looks after the website and email. They may not have a digital background or skillset. | Expertise Basic digital functions are covered by people with specialist skills and experience. | Team There’s a central team of digital specialists, with some digital delivery in other teams. | Function There’s a senior digital lead and a team, with growing digital opportunities in other teams. | Capability Senior digital leadership exists across the organisation with effective delivery teams. |
| 06. Recruitment | Essential There’s a focus on technical skills for the role looking after the website. | Specialist Specialist digital skills are included in certain roles that support engagement. | Generalist Broad digital skills are required for jobs all around the organisation. | Prevalent Strategic digital skills are standardly included in job descriptions. | Pervasive New recruits are all digitally capable. All job descriptions include relevant digital skills. |
| 07. Learning | Skill-sharing Digital experts teach others on an ad-hoc basis. The training budget is very small. | Building literacy There’s a small budget for basic digital skills in digital expert roles. | Centralised Organisation-wide training is normalising digital skills. | Multi-layered Digital upskilling is a priority for all. Teams understand their role in the digital change. | Cultural Learning function leads on the development of digital skills and behaviours at all levels of the organisation. |
| 08. Project management | Inconsistent Project management is done differently for different projects. | Basic Some common project management principles are used. | Progressing Projects are managed through a structured but often lengthy process. | Developing Agile project management principles and practice are used. There is a launch, test and improve approach. | Impactful Agile principles of digital project management are consistently used in all projects to improve efficiency and increase impact. |
| Systems and information - Efficient and effective tech, data and information are crucial elements of digital maturity. | |||||
| 09. Technology | Primitive Systems are limited in scope and aren’t integrated. They may be insecure. | Outdated Systems aren’t keeping up with the needs of the organisation. | Keeping up Systems are stable and enable basic operations. | Effective Tools and systems are delivering improvements in effectiveness. | Leading edge Interconnected tools and systems provide a smooth, effective internal and external user experience. |
| 10. Data | Chaotic Data in the organisation is scattered and largely about offline activity. | Understood Data is seen as important for the organisation. Quality and use is improving in some areas. | Developing There’s a clear policy for data management. Data is integrated and analysed. | Literate Quality, integrated data is used across much of the organisation. | Driven Live data is used across the organisation to shape decisions and performance. |
| 11. Reporting | Sporadic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) exist, but progress is measured in an ad-hoc way. | Tactical Relevant KPIs are set and reported against, but the lessons aren’t always used. | Aggregated Performance data is collected and joined up, but is hard to access. | Integrated Holistic performance data is quickly and easily accessible. | Real-time Holistic performance data is always available and is used strategically. |
| 12. Insight | Gathering Insights are gathered but are used inconsistently. | Understanding Insights from more than one source are combined to build understanding. | Analysing Knowledge about who people are is combined with behavioural insights. | Acting on Insights are used to shape planning and delivery. | Learning from All work is grounded in rich, up-to-date insight. Work is improved upon iteratively. |
| Outputs and experiences - Internally and externally, the outputs and the user experiences have a crucial effect on digital maturity. | |||||
| 13. Communications | Unspecific Digital is used as a device to promote non-digital communications | Consultative Digital advice is sought when judged it’s needed. | Inclusive Digital is involved from the outset in communications planning. | Strategic Communications are designed to be digital by default. | Transformational Digital is used to create adaptable, integrated communications |
| 14. Service delivery | Basic Information is shared online. Traditional offline services are signposted from the website. | Supplementary There is some experimentation with service delivery using digital channels. | Equal Digital services are seen as being as important as traditional offline services. | Insight-driven The provision of online services is based on research and testing. | Innovative Online services are iterative and integrated. They are delivering previously untapped reach and impact. |
| 15. Internal systems | Inefficient There is no will or budget to digitise systems or processes. | Inconsistent Some digital tools are available but their use is erratic. | Discretional Good digital tools are available, with onboarding and support on request. | Effective There is investment in digital tools that improve the working lives of staff. | Efficient A comprehensive suite of connected digital tools, with proactive support for staff is in use. |
Here is a sample result: